Upfc Set To Infuse Fresh Equity

It's time for the daily dose. The patient dutifully swallows his computer chip. The chip sets about recording all internal functions and transmitting them into a central database. The next time the doctor wants to know exactly what is wrong, she will literally have the inside story.

You could describe it as a futurist fantasy. But not when Professor Nicholas Negroponte says that's the way the world's headed. This, remember, is the Digital Age Guru, the founder-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's world-famous Media Labs.

In town as the star attraction of a seminar, `Face to Face with the Digital Future', sponsored by Microsoft and TCS, Negroponte was at his exhilarating best.

He conceded that the Internet has drastically transformed the way humans live, but pointed out that the revolution has just begun.

Negroponte rejected the popular perception that the Internet would isolate human beings behind computer screens. In fact, the interactiveness of the Net would help broaden horizons. Or, as he succinctly put it, "It will change our attitude to change".

The professor's no starry-eyed dreamer, though. He concedes that the Internet is an extremely strong medium, but simultaneously argues that it simply provides a windows' view of the world through a small computer screen. 3D technology like holograms should take b